The Cottage
by MamaCougar
Summary: This is a OS/Canon Bella/Edward Story written from EPOV, based on Bella and Edward's first visit to the cottage, after her awakening.


**A/N: This is a OS/Canon Bella/Edward Story written from EPOV. I'm cool with constructive criticism. Of course, these are Stephanie Meyer's Characters and I have directly quoted her text from Breaking Dawn. The credit for Bella's POV is hers, but I NEEDED to let Edward have his say. Enjoy!**

"You might be a little more appreciative," Alice chided me. "This is as much for you as it is for her."

"True. Thank you again Alice." my voice rang with sincerity. Alice had foretold this day for more than two years. Of all my family, she alone knew and understood my destiny with Bella as fate had planned it from that very first day in the Biology classroom. We exchanged a glance and her mind revealed to me that she was going to deliberately block out her visions tonight, in the interest of my privacy. I was grateful for that, but suppressed saying "thank you" audibly, remembering that Bella could now hear our low, quick exchanges. I just nodded my head, and Alice returned the gesture with her eyes that meant "you're welcome".

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." Alice's voice suddenly shot up with excitement. "Stop there. Turn her just a little to the right."

I placed my hand on Bella's waist and noticed a sweet grin of anticipation blossom underneath Alice's stone hands covering her eyes. It was foreign to me that as I shifted her weight to turn her, her body offered up 100 times the resistance it ever had before. Bella as a human had been so fragile, so easily manipulated. But now, her body was unyielding to my attempts to shift her direction. She giggled but eventually complied. I feigned annoyance, but Bella couldn't see me so I dropped the pretense...besides, we both knew that despite my torture in coming to this conclusion, I was elated that Bella was now as indestructible as I was. The constant worries about her health and safety that plagued me and clouded our union before could be forgotten now. We were free. Free to touch, to kiss, to caress, to make love without our previous constraints. With this one simple thought, a fire was sparked inside of me and I tensed to control it. This was Bella's moment to enjoy her gift. My overwhelming need to be with her as an equal could wait, for as long as Bella wanted it to. This was her time. It was her turn to love me in her way.

"Stop there. Turn her just a little to the right. Yes, like that. Okay, are you ready?" Alice squeaked.

"I'm ready." Bella's new voice, like a choir of cherubim rang out and reverberated through the quiet forest. Its echoes sang to my soul, much the way her blood had sung to me since the fateful day that we had met. But this new song brought me no feelings of terror or dread, only peace and serenity washed over me now. This night, this moment, gave "La tua cantante" a new meaning.

Alice dropped down from Bella's back and released her grip, revealing Bella's new crimson eyes, ripe with anticipation. I watched as her smooth, glassy hand tightened around the key Alice had given her, and her anticipation gave way to wide-eyed wonder and then outright shock. Bella's mouth dropped open as if to speak, but no words came. Alice looked confused (for once!) but I could barely contain the smile erupting on my face. I knew my Bella better than anyone. This cottage was her. She loved old things. She was truly and deeply satisfied with simplicity. She loved that rusty old red truck, she loved her weathered, dog-eared classic novels, and she loved me. I knew the reaction that was forthcoming.

"Don't you like it?" Alice's face fell. "I mean, I'm sure we could fix it up differently, if you want. Emmett was all for adding a few thousand square feet, a second story, columns and a tower, but Esme thought you would like it best the way it was meant to look."

Of course Esme was able to perfectly gauge Bella's preferences. She and Bella now shared the bonds of motherhood. Esme, for that brief time long ago, had loved her baby boy the way only a mother could love her child...the way Bella now loved Renesmee. And Esme had spent decades sharing that love with her adopted children. I had never been more grateful for her instincts as I was in this moment, because they brought such joy to my Bella. Esme knew that my entire existence was wrapped around Bella's. Giving her what she wanted was my greatest pleasure. The fire inside me intensified, but I suppressed my urge to scoop her up and run inside. My will to be patient won out once again. Barely.

Alice's voice climbed an octave and her cadence increased. "If she was wrong, we can get back to work. It won't take long to___"

"Shhhh" Bella whispered. "You're giving me a house for my birthday?" she asked incredulously.

"Us," I corrected, hoping that would assuage the guilt that I was sure was forthcoming. "And it's no more than a cottage. I think the word house implies more legroom."

Bella was never good at receiving gifts. In sharp contrast to my overwhelming desire to give her anything and everything she ever wanted, Bella was uncomfortable with material displays of affection and love. She humbly accepted gifts on rare occasions, but always with the tenor that she was somehow undeserving. And this was a very big gift. It was more than just a simple cottage. It was our cottage. Our place to be together, alone, for the first time since Bella had become my equal. Again, fueled by the intensity of my desires, the fire inside me flashed and rekindled. And again, I called upon my wavering restraint and reined it in. My will to control it was getting tenuous, and I thought I saw a flash on Alice's pixie face, indicating that she was aware of my need and would be beating a hasty exit at the first opportunity.

"No knocking my house." Bella whispered to me.

Alice's face lit up like only hers could. Her deep, dark brown eyes, although revealing her pressing need to hunt, shone bright with satisfaction. Her perfect white teeth gleamed brightly through a smile that seemed to illuminate our path to the front door. Alice loved orchestrating things, and she knew she had written this symphony perfectly. With Bella's attention diverted to the house, I shot Alice a quick wink and she beamed again. "You like it."

Bella shook her head yes in amazement.

"Love it?" Alice baited her.

Bella repeated her gesture with more fervor this time, never taking her eyes away from the cottage. The moonlight poured through the forest canopy and caressed Bella's perfect face and newly chiseled body creating shadows and patches of light that illuminated her like a piece of carefully sculpted art. In my 108 years, I had never seen such breathtaking beauty. Bella, even in her human form had cast a spell over me that made my heart and mind ache with my need for her. But this Bella...this utterly and undeniably perfect Bella, it was almost too much for me to bear. How could I possibly deserve this?

"I can't wait to tell Esme!" Alice squealed, making no attempt to repress her own joy at how this gift had touched Bella's heart. It was hard for me to decide which emotion I was enjoying more in this moment, Alice's perfect gratification, or Bella's carefully restrained but deeply fervent appreciation for this gift. I loved them both so much.

"Why didn't she come?"

Alice's smile softened. "Oh, you know....they all remember how you are about presents. They didn't want to put you under too much pressure to like it."

"But of course I love it. How could I not?" Bella replied, no longer bothering to whisper.

Bella's melodic voice, added to her beauty was like a battering ram aimed straight at my core. Every fiber of my being longed to sweep her up and through the cottage door leaving Alice alone in our wake. The fire inside me was fanned by months of carefully restrained desires and despite my cold exterior, my insides were blazing with an inferno that was becoming harder and harder to control as the minutes passed. But, I reminded myself, this is Bella's moment. This is her time to savor. Surely I could remain a gentleman for as long as she needed me to. I sucked in a breath to reassure myself and exhaled very slowly. Alice caught me and winked.

"They'll like that." She patted Bella's arm gently. I immediately and instinctively shot Alice a "be careful" glare, but the sound of her hand on Bella's granite forearm reminded me that there was no longer a cause for concern. Alice's touch didn't so much as phase Bella, not a single flinch or flash of pain in her amazing, ruby-colored eyes.

"Anywhoo, your closet is stocked. Use it wisely...I guess that's everything."

"Aren't you going to come inside?" Bella inquired. The request made Alice choke back a laugh, but she managed to casually retreat from us a few steps and quickly hide her smile in a dark shadow. "Edward knows his way around. I'll stop by...later. Call me if you can't match your clothes right."

Her teasing tone of annoyance at Bella's challenged fashion sense was amusing. Did she not understand that the last thing on this earth that Bella would need tonight was clothing? I chuckled under my breath and offered Alice one last glance of appreciation. She immediately picked up on the urgency in my face and threw in "Jazz wants to hunt." before she disappeared into the night, leaving me alone at the threshold with my perfect angel. My salvation.

Bella looked confused at Alice's nearly soundless retreat into the night.

"That was weird," she puzzled. "Am I really that bad? They didn't have to stay away. Now I feel guilty. I didn't even thank her right. We should go back, tell Esme__"

Bella's ridiculous reasoning had not been lost in her transformation from human to vampire. As I predicted, Esme's gift, while delighting her, had also evoked feelings of shame and self-consciousness in her misguided cognizance.

"Bella, don't be silly" - I made a sincere effort to remove condescension from my reaction - "No one thinks you're that unreasonable."

"Then what...." her voice trailed off and she dropped her head and bit her lip, perplexed. I dropped my head too, hiding my amusement at her sweet confusion. "Alone time is their other gift. Alice was trying to be subtle about it."

"Oh."

Watching the comprehension dawn on Bella's face was like watching the most breathtaking sunrise I had ever seen. Her eyes widened, her features softened and then melted into an embarrassed sideways glance. The only thing missing from her expression was the automatic flush of blood under the translucent skin of her cheeks. I would really miss that.

The smile I had been holding back finally erupted on my face as I reached for Bella's hand."Let me show you what they've done." I tried to lead her forward but she was frozen in her stance, her eyes locked on mine, steadfastly immobile. Again, her reaction confounded me. Was she afraid? Conflicted? Suddenly in tune with her voracious newborn thirst? Did she smell humans nearby? After all, her senses were more heightened than my own in her enhanced, newly transformed body.

I cursed the power of her unyielding mind, keeping its thoughts from me, when they were the thoughts I most wanted to hear; more than anything on earth I had ever desired in either of my lifetimes. Then suddenly, Bella laughed out loud, stunning my ears with a magnificent musical sound that bounced off the stone wall of the cottage and echoed into the darkness. I rolled my eyes, "Do I get to hear the joke?"

"It's not a very good one" she replied as her body relaxed and surrendered to follow me to the front door. "I was just thinking - today is the first and last day of forever. It's kind of hard to wrap my head around it. Even with all this extra room for wrapping." She chuckled again, and I joined her, amused that in all of her bewilderment, this was one of the first things she had spoken tonight that made perfect sense to me.

I made a courteous gesture towards the entrance although I was feeling far from gentlemanly on the inside. Bella and I had not been intimate since our honeymoon on Isle Esme, and never before with the beautiful balance of our physical equality. My chest tightened with anticipation as my mind suddenly raced with plans for satisfying Bella's deepest desires in ways she could never imagine. And then, as quickly as those thoughts came to me, a gripping fear stole my fantasies and I almost lost my breath and all composure. Bella's human body had been comforting and familiar; its reactions to my touch were as predictable as a Swiss timepiece. I understood its strengths and for the sake of her safety, had carefully memorized its limitations. But her vampire anatomy was uncharted territory for me I suddenly felt lost in a swirling sea of anxiety.

Bella was stronger than me. Her newborn senses were still raw and intense, despite her unique and unexpected self-control. With this reminder, my confidence all but abandoned me. I hadn't felt so alone since my self-imposed separation from Bella all those months ago. Where were Jasper and Emmett when I needed them? I wondered if Bella would notice if I left her to explore the cottage for a moment while I stole away for some quick reassurance from my brothers? Yes, of course she would notice. Panic was taking over as I silently acknowledged that fight or flight was not just a human instinct. My insatiable need to be one with Bella again was dueling with my growing desire to escape the pressure of unknown expectations.

I watched Bella's eyes as her fingers uncurled gracefully from the golden Key Alice had given her. She placed it in the lock and with a gentle click it turned and the heavy wooden door swung open with a low creak. "You're such a natural at this Bella; I forget how very strange this must all be for you. I wish I could _**hear**_ it."

The memories of the first time I carried Bella over the threshold at Isle Esme flooded my consciousness. She was so pure, so innocent and yet her old soul was wise and intuitive. Bella was nothing if not staunchly stubborn. She had made it very clear to me that being my wife in name only was not something she would agree to. She expected our marriage to be consummated the very same way that tradition had dictated for centuries. She was not interested in my attempts to dissuade her or my reasons for waiting until she had been changed. My Bella trusted me to gently and lovingly take from her the one thing a human woman can never reclaim once it is given to another. I had spent the bulk of our voyage to the island praying that I would be strong enough not to betray her faith in me. And despite my overpowering temptation, I had given Bella what she deeply desired, second only to being changed. I had given her all of me. But could I possibly hope to pleasure Bella in the same way now when she was exponentially stronger and her acute senses could so easily identify my shortcomings?

In an attempt to cast out my doubts, I swept down and scooped Bella up into my embrace so swiftly, she never saw it coming.

"Hey!" she was genuinely surprised.

"Thresholds are a part of my job description." I reminded her, "But I'm curious, tell me what you're thinking about right now."

I ducked my head and stepped through the door of the cottage with Bella's slight but solid body tucked tightly against mine. I was merely a spectator to the "reveal", as Alice had given me very specific instructions as to how I was to slowly and methodically unveil each room and bring to Bella's attention the interesting details of architecture and interior design that Esme had planned so carefully. Humoring Alice as I often did, I promised her I would try to do it justice, but kept to myself that I had strong doubts it would play out as she had scripted. But, I would at least make an effort in case she was tempted to go back on her word and sneak a vision to check up on me.

Bella's response to my query brought me back to the moment.

"Everything. All at the same time. You know." she whispered. Yes, I did know. "Good things and things to worry about and things that are new. How I keep using too many superlatives in my head. Right now, I'm thinking that Esme is an artist. It's so perfect!"

I was captivated by Bella's wide-eyed wonder as she saw the interior of our new home for the first time. The perfection of her angelic face illuminated by the soft glow of embers that crackled in the corner fireplace was like a powerful magnetic force sucking at my will and eating away at my reserve. Her supple breasts gently caressed my chest through her nearly threadbare blue silk gown, an unfortunate casualty of our first hunt together. She twisted in my arms to take in views from every angle; her flaming eyes drinking in the details of Esme's meticulously planned lover's retreat. The feel of her velvety thighs as they shifted against my left hand coupled with the sweet floral smell of her hair as it brushed against my chest assured that the flight scenario was becoming less likely by the second.

After her initial assessment, Bella's interest in her new surroundings seemed to wane. In my half-hearted attempt to follow Alice's instructions, I took a step towards the narrow stone hallway that led to Renesmee's nursery and Bella's and my....room. I supposed the over sized white canopy bed inside technically made it a bedroom, but it seemed silly to call it that when neither Bella nor I would ever actually sleep in it. When she sensed the direction of my movement, Bella shifted her weight and swiftly turned to meet my gaze, our faces just inches apart. Her rich scarlet eyes were searching desperately for mine and her breathing becoming uneven. I needed to move quickly so that I could at least tell Alice I had made an honest attempt. Distracting her with inane conversation seemed like a good idea.

"We're lucky Esme thought to add an extra room. No one was planning for Ness...Renesmee."

"Not you too." she complained.

"Sorry love." I shrugged, but then realized I shouldn't have. The gentle movement of her calves against the tops of my thighs was very distracting. I pressed on. "I hear their thoughts all the time. It's rubbing off on me." The double entendre of my last sentence was delightful.

"I'm sure you're dying to see the closet. Or at least I'll tell Alice that you were, to make her feel good."

"Should I be afraid?" Bella mused.

"Terrified."

Anxious to fulfill Alice's request (who was I kidding?), I proceeded down the hallway, pointing out the tiny wooden archways that Carlisle and Emmett had spent hours planning and days carving. Nodding to the right, "This will be Renesmee's room. They didn't have time to do much with it, what with the angry werewolves..." my voice trailed off as I silently cursed myself for bringing up anything having to do with Jacob. This was certainly not the time or place, but Bella just brushed it off with a laugh.

I could feel her entire body tense in my arms as I turned right and stepped into the room Esme had designed for us. "Here's our room. Esme tried to bring some of her island back here for us. She guessed that we would get attached." Esme had achieved the desired affect. Our room must have triggered Bella's memories of our time on the island because she began to tremble, ever so slightly at first and then more pronounced as she seemed less able to control her rapidly resurfacing desires.

"Oh" was all she managed to say.

"I know" was all I could manage to reply.

My willpower was hanging by a single thread now, as fragile as a spider's silk. But I knew Alice would never forgive me if I failed to point out the massive walk-in dressing room that she had added to Esme's original blueprints. The vision of her pouting pixie face made me burst out in laughter. "The closet is through those double doors. I should warn you, it's bigger than this room."

Bella never even glanced at the doors. A sudden electric shock arced between our quivering bodies leaving me breathless and unable to control my own movement. Her arms tightened around my neck as mine surrendered helplessly to the force of the current flowing between us. Bella's legs dropped gracefully to the pale wooden floor, her feet fitting perfectly into the space between mine.

"We're going to tell Alice I ran right to the clothes." she growled. Her powerful hands searched up the length of my neck, and entangled themselves in the roots of my hair, pulling me closer to her ravenous, scorching eyes. "We're going to tell her I spent hours in there playing dress-up. We're going to **lie**."

My self control was instantly in shreds, just like Bella's pretty blue dress. I heard myself moan as our mouths met with the magnetic force of cataclysmic black hole. My right hand wrapped around her waist, locking her against the full length of my body as my left hand carelessly tossed what was left of her gown onto the ottoman in the corner of the room. I felt one of Bella's hands drop to the base of my spine and curl around the tail of my shirt and with a swift flex of her fingers, it was gone. She didn't bother to toss it. What was left of the soft cotton oxford brushed the back of my legs and settled on the floor at our feet. In nearly the same instant, the fingers on her other hand blazed a white hot trail down the length of my bare back and found their way to my waistband. My trousers met the same unfortunate fate and I kicked the useless garments into the corner behind me as our naked bodies sank to the floor in perfect synchrony, Bella's knees landing soundlessly and squarely between mine.

Bella in the moonlight was shocking.

In her human form, she had been my perfect, precious lamb; innocent and vulnerable. Her soft, gently rolling frame, slightly asymmetrical face, tempting chestnut eyes and creamy white skin were just the superficial exterior trappings that enveloped her pure, selfless soul. I had never even considered that she could be improved upon. It simply wasn't possible.

And yet here she was. My Bella, transformed.

She was my lioness.

Bella's new body was sleek and sinewy with sharply defined musculature that rippled effortlessly with every movement underneath her flawless satin skin. Her thick brown hair seemed to drink in the moonbeams as they filtered in through the window, and then reflect the soft blue glow back onto her impossibly beautiful face. Her deep crimson eyes were wild with hunger and yet somehow retained a small hint of humanity, even while she locked me into the crosshairs of her penetrating vision.

Bella looked like she planned to eat me alive.

Turnabout was fair play I supposed, as I mirrored her searing gaze with an expression of my own imprisoned passion. The juxtaposition was justice in its purest form, and I welcomed it. Bella had become the predator now, and I was her willing, submissive prey. I would defer to her desires, follow where she lead me, surrender every ounce of my control to this woman who had given up everything...her family, her friends, her future and more than once, nearly her life for me.

Bella pounced and subdued me effortlessly as we fell backwards and rolled onto the ivory rug at the foot of the bed. She straddled me with her powerful legs and gathered both of my wrists with an iron grip, pinning them to the floor above my head. Her full lips parted with anticipation, gleaming white teeth bared and eyes raw and wild with the excitement of the impending kill. A low growl escaped her throat as she skillfully lunged at my jugular. I arched my neck up, offering myself to her in sacrifice.

I heard a teasing laugh and she closed her lips over her razor sharp teeth in the instant before her mouth met the skin of my neck and set my entire body ablaze. She retreated gracefully in order to position her body to receive me, and this time when we came together, Bella's body didn't offer even an ounce of resistance. It welcomed me, as if being inside her, being joined together in this expression of our love was a more natural state than being apart....sensually symbiotic.

She released my wrists and allowed me to reach up and encircle her hips with my arms, grasping my hands together at the base of her back, but I applied no pressure. None was necessary. Bella knew exactly what to do, her pacing and movements in perfect synchrony with my own. She pulled back slowly so that our bodies were perpendicular, never missing a smooth, rocking stroke as she ran both of her hands through her hair, pulling it away from her face momentarily. The vision of her rapturous countenance in the glow of the midnight moon already had me balancing tenuously on the edge of climax.

Then suddenly, she dropped her hands to my chest and leaned in closer. Her expression softened as she approached closer still, until just inches apart, her sweet breath washed over me like waters of The River Jordan, cleansing me of all my worldly sins. She kissed my neck for the second time and then, up the line of my jaw settling her mouth at the hollow space behind my ear.

"Edward." She whispered, startling me with her velvet voice. "No one has ever loved you like I do."

That did it.

There exists no force in any universe that was powerful enough to contain my ecstasy. My eyes rolled back in my head just after I caught a glance of Bella's wicked smile as she pulled away, never letting up, gliding faster and faster over my helpless body. My back arched instinctively as I released my hands from her and searched desperately for something to grasp on either side of me....the rug. Easily replaceable. Esme would never notice.

But this time was different. Not a single ounce of my climactic energy was wasted on a bed frame or a feather pillow. Instead I was able to easily channel it to the very center of Bella's core. I felt the muscles inside her tense and relax rhythmically around me, eagerly accepting the power of each pulse of heat. Every part of her body began to tremble as the height of her pleasure approached.

Bella's hands slid up my chest, caressed my neck and formed themselves forcefully around my face. Her eyes widened and her breathing became ragged and uneven as she deliberately slowed the pace of her hips. Finally, her eyes closed slowly and she collapsed into me, gently purring as her lips met mine. At the same moment I could feel a jolt of electricity that seemed to originate from her hands and encircle my head. So quickly I was sure I had imagined it, I heard Bella's soft, incredulous whisper, "You're beautiful", but her lips had not unlocked themselves from me. And then, a flash. In the tiny space of one millisecond, one hundredth of a millisecond, I saw a mirror image of myself in my mind, standing in the sunlight, my faceted skin shimmering as it reflected rainbows of light into the peaceful meadow in front of me. And then it was gone.

My mind was playing tricks on me.

Bella was completely unaware of what she had just done to me as she lay breathlessly draped over my body like a warm blanket, stroking my chest with her porcelain fingers and humming peacefully to herself. I was fascinated with the way her seduction had so completely controlled me, both in body and mind, a devouring passion that had even caused me to hallucinate. I shouldn't be surprised.

Being with Bella was like living a miracle every single moment of every single day. And we had all night, all of eternity to make as many miracles we wanted.

**End Notes: Perhaps a foreshadowing of Bella's vamp gifts? Perhaps, indeed. Glad you caught that. **


End file.
